Head of Exchange Infrastructure

As Head of Exchange Infrastructure at Kraken, you own the foundational layer that every product is built on: the matching engine, core infrastructure, third-party custody, algo engine, and API engine. Kraken has grown as a set of vertically integrated products, each with its own engine and APIs. Your mission is to consolidate them into a single exchange stack that serves every product and interface. You will lead a team of four to five product managers, partnered with an engineering manager, operating as a senior, independent team with leverage and close collaboration with the work.

What you'll do

• Own the product vision and roadmap for the exchange layer, including matching engine, core infrastructure, third-party custody, algo engine, and API engine
• Lead and grow a team of four to five product managers, and set the standard for product craft across the layer
• Lead the consolidation of multiple matching engines into one, starting with US derivatives, then international derivatives, then spot
• Build interface-agnostic platforms so every product team and interface can build on the same infrastructure rather than their own
• Define success metrics such as p99 latency, throughput, uptime, and resiliency, and hold teams accountable to them
• Partner with engineering leaders across exchange and core infrastructure to sequence the migration without disrupting live markets
• Partner with Risk and Credit Infrastructure teams so clients can hold one account and trade every product against it
• Anticipate industry shifts and shape the platform to stay ahead
• Align cross-functional teams including product, engineering, risk, and compliance around exchange strategy

What you bring

• Senior product leadership experience in exchange, trading, or high-performance platforms
• Proven experience managing and developing product managers on a team senior enough to operate independently
• Willingness to be a player-coach, owning roadmaps and writing specs yourself alongside reviewing work from your team
• Demonstrated ability to set product vision and translate it into a long-term roadmap
• Strong understanding of matching engine and market data architecture, including the tradeoffs that low latency forces
• Experience building platforms for internal customers, with the judgment to distinguish a true platform from a series of bespoke builds
• Excellent communication skills to influence both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• A passion for crypto markets, market structure, and building the next generation of infrastructure

Nice to have

• An engineering background before transitioning into product, so you have built or operated high-performance systems yourself
• Experience across both spot and derivatives venues, understanding the market structure differences between them
• Time at a crypto exchange operating at comparable scale, volume, and uptime expectations
• A track record building platform roadmaps that interlock with adjacent product organizations rather than running in isolation

About Kraken

Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, founded in 2011 and trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions globally. It offers spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services for both individual investors and institutional clients. Kraken is part of Payward, a parent company that has spent 15 years building modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms to advance an open financial system.